Not sent artillery to Ukraine; India dismisses viral video

External Affairs Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal addressed the media to clear the air.

New Delhi: As a video of some soldiers of Ukraine handling artillery shells fuelled speculation about India supplying munitions to the East European nation to help it fight the military aggression of Russia, New Delhi has moved fast to kill the buzz – ostensibly to make sure that it does not cast a shadow over its ties with Moscow.

“We’ve also seen some media reports in this regard. We can categorically say that we have not sent any of this artillery ammunition to Ukraine,” Randhir Jaiswal, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), told journalists in New Delhi.

He was replying to a query on the reports suggesting that some of the 155 mm artillery shells produced in India might have found their way to Ukraine and the soldiers of the East European nation were using the munitions to fight against the Russian Army. The reports are based on a video circulated on X and other social media platforms, showing the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with some artillery shells inside an AHS Krab – a self-propelled gun-howitzer designed and manufactured by Huta Stalowa Wola of Poland.

The video fuelled speculation that the shells might have been the 155 mm munitions manufactured in India.

The buzz on the social media platforms as well as some speculative reports on online portals, however, alarmed New Delhi.

Ever since Russia in February 2022 launched its “special military operations” in Ukraine, New Delhi refrained from joining the United States and the rest of the West in condemning Moscow – ostensibly due to India’s decades-old strategic partnership with and its dependence on the former Soviet Union nation for military hardware.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, however, told Russian President Vladimir Putin that it was not an era of war, and the Moscow-Kyiv conflict should be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar recently visited Moscow and had meetings with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov. He also called on Putin and stressed the importance of New Delhi’s relations with Moscow and underlined that the ties with Russia had served India well.

Jaishankar also had a phone call with Dmytro Kuleba on Wednesday. They discussed about the Global Peace Summit which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would host soon to drum up support for his 10-point peace plan to end his country’s conflict with Russia.

New Delhi’s quick and categorical denial of exporting any munition from India to Ukraine was apparently prompted by its keenness to continue with its neutral stand on the conflict and to maintain the delicate balance in its ties with Russia and the US-led West.

The state-owned Munitions India Limited and Advanced Weapons and Equipment India Limited manufacture 155 mm artillery shells, which are purportedly exported to the United Arab Emirates and some countries in Europe. The video of the soldiers of Ukraine with the munitions also triggered suspicion about the shells being sent to the beleaguered country illegally after being procured from India by any other country in Europe.  

The US has sent more than two million 155 mm artillery shells to Ukraine over the past few months to help the East European nation fight against the military offensive launched by Russia. The US is trying to boost production and procurement of 155 mm artillery to replenish its own stockpile. The West has an ambitious plan to send at least 200,000 155 mm munitions a month to Ukraine to help it fight Russia.